


Postponing the Inevitable

by Joan_Galt_Number_0864297531



Category: Naruto
Genre: F/M, Songfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-19
Updated: 2014-11-19
Packaged: 2018-02-26 06:31:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,687
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2641619
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Joan_Galt_Number_0864297531/pseuds/Joan_Galt_Number_0864297531
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alternate ending in which Sakura and Kakashi cannot find Naruto and Sasuke at the end of their battle. At their return, Sasuke attempts to talk to Sakura. Sakura is not ready to see him again, and she cannot forget his betrayals. (Taylor Swift's Bad Blood is weaved in throughout)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Postponing the Inevitable

**Author's Note:**

> In my version, Sasuke's genjutsu was harsher than the one showed in the manga. Also, Sasuke may seem a little out of character compared to current canon because in my ending he has not completely come out of his darkness or recognized Sakura yet. Additionally, Sakura may seem out of character because she hasn't yet forgiven Sasuke and is not as in love with him. 
> 
> Disclaimer: I obviously own neither Taylor Swift's music nor Kishimoto's characters.

After Sasuke had rendered Sakura incapacitated with his genjutsu, he and Naruto had left to settle the score. Kakashi stayed with her until she woke, and they had rushed to the scene of the battle to find an incredible amount of destruction, but neither Naruto nor Sasuke. The remainder of Team 7 searched the rubble near the waterfall for hours, and came up with nothing. Kakashi summoned Pakkun and the rest of his dogs, but was unable to find a complete trail. Either her boys were dead, or really didn’t want to be followed. There was no indication that the blond haired boy or the last Uchiha had not disappeared off the face of the earth for seven months. However, the only female member of the team knew better than to give up.

Sakura raced to the front gates of Konoha as soon as she heard the news that Naruto had brought Sasuke back, for obvious reasons. She was Tsunade’s apprentice, and was subsequently the second most talented medic in the shinobi world. According to the villagers, after her performance during the war, the most talented. Naruto and Sasuke were notorious for gravely injuring opponents, and if they were anything like she remembered, they would have beat each other within and inch of their lives. One of them might not have even survived. If one of them were hurt, she would have to be the one to treat him at the hospital, and if he were critical, he might not even make it there. Sakura was sure that her assistance would be needed, so when she reached the entrance to the village, Naruto and Sasuke walking towards the gate side by side, leaning on each other for support, was the last thing she expected to witness. Immediately a swarm of shinobi surrounded the two and started to help them to the entrance. She was relieved, but her hear heart still sank into her stomach. She was useless…again.

Even more foreign to her than the concept of her boys only gaining minor lacerations and contusions during a fight was the look in Sasuke’s eyes. It wasn’t irritation that she was seeing in his endless black orbs, or anger, or relief, even. It was acknowledgement, the same he had given her when they had seen him in the ruins of Orochimaru’s lair, like nothing had changed. Like she hadn’t changed at all. Raw, unadulterated, anger swirled in her veins and Sakura made a fist, tight enough to draw blood. After all this time, after everything, he still couldn’t see that she was no longer weak. He thought that he could just waltz back in to the village without any consequences or anything having changed. When Sasuke finally turned back to look at her once more, she didn’t smile like she would have when she was younger, she instead narrowed her eyes, causing her red lashes to darken her bright green eyes to near black, almost daring him to treat her the same way he always did. Naruto tugged at the raven haired man’s sleeve and murmured something almost inaudibly to him, concerned, “Yo, Sasuke, you’ve…sorry…Sakura isn’t…can’t wait until…she’s got a temper.” Naruto glanced forward, warily, and gave her a weak smile and a thumbs up. Sasuke glared at his blond companion, and seemed to have no intention of listening to him.

Sasuke, again, defied her expectations. When the two reconciled shinobi finally reached the gates, he broke away from Naruto and started to walk towards the rosette, his eyes wandering anywhere but her. Naruto, tightly embracing the girl who stood by him all along, glanced up from the cascade of dark purple that was Hinata’s hair and looked at the pair knowingly. Sasuke stopped a foot away from his female teammate, nearly towering over her, and focused his onyx pools on her emerald. Sakura was absolutely suffocated by her first love’s presence, she stumbled back a step, her breathing quickening. Sasuke didn’t seem to get the cues of her body language and advanced toward the pinkette again, extending his hand to grab her shoulder and keep her in place. Sakura was faster. She caught his with her small, battle worn, hands.

* * *

 

Sakura’s mind bounced from memory to memory, no longer fully present in front of the Uchiha. She needed time to think, she couldn’t do this now.

>  
> 
> _Did you have to do this?_
> 
>  
> 
>  

She thought back to all of the times that Sasuke had had chances to return to his home town, all of the times she had told him she loved him.

 

>   _I was thinking that you could be trusted_.

 

Even though Sakura knew that Sasuke was dangerous, she had always thought that they had a unique sort of understanding. After all, she had been the one to know to wait on the bench and attempt to prevent him from leaving the village. But then again, it wasn’t like she was able to stop him.

 

> _ Did you have to ruin what was shining now it’s all rusted? _

 

After Sasuke left, sure, Sakura grew as a person. She worked hard to become powerful enough to surpass her shishou. But on the inside, she was dead and decaying. For a while Sakura felt numb, and she still knew she could never love again. She couldn’t leave herself vulnerable to that kind of weakness.

 

>   _Did you have to hit me? Where I'm weak, baby I couldn't breathe._

 

Sasuke was insensitive, and that was putting it lightly. He knew what to say or to do, in order to make her feel small and insignificant. He also knew better; he was aware  of what he was doing to her. How many times had he cut her down, had he called her annoying?

 

> _ And rub it in so deep. Salt in the wound like you're laughing right at me. _
> 
>  

Sakura tried so hard to rid herself of the torch she carried for him. She even tried unproven memory repressing techniques from an old medical text from the restricted section of the Konoha library. But, without fail, every time she was confronted with the boy she loved, it would all come flooding back in at once. Every time. Every time they met he would look at her like she meant nothing to him, like **she** was nothing.

 

> _Oh, it's so sad to think about the good times, you and I._
> 
>  
> 
>  

Sometimes she would think back to the times they shared when Team 7 was not as broken. The team dinners at Ichiraku, the training sessions, their mission to the land of waves, and the countless pointless missions they endured.

 

> _Cause baby now we got bad blood. You know it used to be mad love._
> 
>  

She didn’t know when, but she really did fall for Sasuke. It wasn’t the fairytale kind of puppy love, it wasn’t the obsession of a fan-girl, and it wasn’t the attachment of a teammate. It was a kind of love she had no illusions about, the kind she would die to preserve. And it was terrifying. After everything, did she still love him ? Sakura didn’t know. A part of her hoped not.

 

> _Now we got problems. And I don't think we can solve them._

 

Sakura couldn’t see herself forgiving and forgetting everything any time soon. His recent fuckups still haunted her.

 

> _ You made a really deep cut. And baby now we got bad blood. _
> 
>  

Being stabbed by someone she cared about, even in a genjutsu, was not something the rosette cared to repeat. Being forsaken by a comrade was her worst fear, besides losing everyone she loved. The shock, the betrayal, the white-hot pain of a former friend's blade piercing her abdomen, it was all still fresh in her mind. 

 

> _Did you think we'd be fine? Still got scars on my back from your knife._

 

When she had woken up from her sharingan-induced nightmare, her and Kakashi hadn’t spoken about the contents of the illusion. They hadn’t needed to; the look on her face was enough for them both to come to a similar conclusion. Nothing other than a ninja's darkest fear could shake them so completely. What Sasuke had shown her, wasn’t something you could show your enemies and still sleep at night. What he had done to her, a person who cared about him, was close to unforgivable.

 

> _So don't think it's in the past. These kinds of wounds they last and they last._
> 
>  

Occasionally, one of her chronic night terrors would feature a Chidori-weilding Sasuke, and his hand around her neck. Once, she had woken up convinced she was actually choking, gasping for air and clinging to her sheets so desperately her knuckles turned white.

 

> _Now did you think it all through? All these things will catch up to you._

 

There was no doubt that Sasuke was incredibly impulse driven. And apparently, to the major malevolent powers that be, it was no secret that he was incredibly easy to manipulate. But, like her sensei, Sakura believed those who desert their friends were worse than trash. And so, like Naruto, she refused to give up on her former teammate. 

 

> _And time can heal but this won't. So if you’re coming my way, just don't._

 

Even so, Sakura couldn’t face Sasuke now. Maybe she could hear him out in the future, but she had just come from the hospital, and she was in desperate need of a warm bath and some good sake.

 

* * *

 

“Sakura.” Sasuke was growing impatient. Sakura had been looking at him like a deer in the headlights and trapping his wrist in a death grip for a solid five minutes. As much as he hated to admit it, her chakra-enhanced strength could be painful after an extended period, even for someone with a pain threshold as high as his own. 

“Uchiha Sasuke, are you in dire need of medical attention?” Sakura asked, almost clinically, dropping his hand.

“No, of course not, why would I –’’ The raven haired man started, ambushed by the break in her silence. 

The kunoichi interrupted him unabashedly, “Then make an appointment. Because I’m too tired for this shit.”


End file.
